Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds
Audio Exhibition
Pablo Picasso (Spanish, active in France, 1881–1973), View of Notre-Dame, Paris, Paris, April 13, 1945, oil on canvas, Private collection, courtesy of Martin Lawrence Galleries © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society, (ARS), New York, Courtesy American Federation of Arts
Verbal Description
Hello, I am Emily Holtrop, the museum’s director of learning & interpretation. I will be reading a description of the painting View of Notre-Dame, Paris in Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds.
Pablo Picasso, a Spanish artist who lived from 1881 to 1973, painted View of Notre-Dame in oil on canvas on April 13, 1945, in Paris. It is in a private collection and exhibited courtesy of Martin Lawrence Galleries.
View of Notre-Dame is a small horizontally oriented painting measuring five and one-half by about eight and a half inches, or 14 by 22 centimeters. The historic cathedral is represented at the center of the picture, with buildings of similar height and shorter surrounding it on the right and the left. In the foreground, in front of the cathedral, are three arches that indicate a bridge, as the artist has added blue beneath each curved shape to represent water. The sky behind the structures is a light teal blue, with a few fluffy white clouds populating the expanse. All the buildings, including the cathedral, are painted in shades of white and grey, with heavy black outlines around each structure to indicate windows and architectural elements. The front of the church is painted in a light yellow, perhaps to represent the sun shining on the façade.